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The Schoolhouse 
Farthest West 







II 








Woman's Board of 
Home Missions of 
t li e Presbyterian 
Cliurcfi, 156 Tiith 
Ave., New York 
City, N.Y. J* Jt 



THE SCHOOLHOUSE 
FARTHEST WEST 



ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND 
^ ^ ALASKA ^ ^ 




MR. AND MRS. V. C. GAMBELL AND BABY MARGARET. 



^■'. 



THE SCHOOLHOUSE FARTHEST WEST. 



The incidents and particulars of tliis story of school life in the far North were related at Seattle by Mr. V. C. Gambell, who 
with his young wife taught the Eskimo school at St. Lawrence Island for three years. Their fate was a melancholy one. After a 
visit, to their home during the winter and spring of 1898, they started to return to their school, and sailed from Seattle on the 
schooner Jane Grey. Off Cape Flattery a heavy gale was encountered, during which the schooner sprung a leak, and sank within a 
few minutes. Thirty-two of the passengers, including Mr. and Mrs. Gambell, perished. The Eskimo pupils of these brave teachers 
looked in vain for them to reappear. While they were in Alaska, they had many strange and dangerous experiences. 
Mr. Gambell's narrative was substantially as follows : 



Upon St. Lawrence Island, in the Bering Sea, 
stands the schoolhouse which, of all those over 
which the American flag flies, is farthest west. 
There is a school at Point Barrow, in the Arctic 
Ocean, which is farther north, but the one on 
St. Lawrence Island is the farthest over toward 
Siberia, to the northwest. 

St. Lawrence Island lies almost within the 
Arctic Circle, at the southerly entrance to Ber- 
ing Straits. Nothing larger than tundra grass, 
lichens and a few low willows grow on its bleak, 
copper-covered hills and frozen marshes. For- 
merly there were three Eskimo villages, but in 
1888-9, many of the natives died of starvation. 
It is said that they had sold all they possessed to 
smugglers in exchange for liquor. Now there is 
one village of three hundred and fifty souls, at 
the western end of the island. The people lived 
almost wholly by hunting the walrus. 



The lumber for the first schoolhouse was 
shipped from San Francisco, in 1891; and a 
strong, plain structure, forty feet in length by 
twenty in width, was bviilt by the carpenters of 
the ship that brought it, on the outskirts of the 
native village, at a cost of exactly one thousand 
dollars. 

Mrs. Gambell and I were carried to the island 
by the United States revenue steamer Bear, 
and landed September 15, 1894. By way of in- 
troducing us. Captain Healy announced to the 
people through an interpreter that we were two 
white teachers who would live at the school- 
house and teach the children to "make book- 
talk." He added a warning that they must treat 
us well. 

Nevertheless, we were not without misgiving 
when set ashore among these strange-looking 
people, and reflected that after the J5ear left we 



would be alone with them for a year, cut off 
from all communication with the outside world, 
and entirely at their mercy. What might not 
happen to us in that time ? My wife cried a lit- 
tle for loneliness as the Bear steamed away. 

A year's supply of flour, meat, hard biscuit and 
canned goods had been landed for us and put in 
the schoolhouse, one half of which was partitioned 
off as our private room. Coal, too, had been 
landed for our fuel, as there is no wood on the 
island except driftwood, probably from the Ana- 
dir and the Yukon River. 

On first landing, we knew hardly a word of 
the native language, a very difficult one. I wish 
the Eskimos had been equally ignorant ! As we 
stepped ashore, thej^ greeted us with boisterous 
laughter. They stood with their hands on their 
hips, literallj' shaking with what seemed merri- 
ment, and ejaculating a chorus of yeh-yeh-yehs ! 
Their greasy, flat faces, pug noses and broad 
mouths added to the appearance of hilarity. The 
native garb made their thick-set figures seem 
still more squat; and most of the men might 
have been taken for fat friars, since nearly all 
had the crowns of their heads rudely shaven. If 
their laughter was disconcerting, what shall I 
call their language ? 

Tlieir few English words, picked up from 
whalemen and smugglers, were mostly terrible 
oaths, and still more revolting expressions. As 
they crowded forward, laughing, thej'^ poured 
forth a torrent of this awful language. Of course 



they did not in the least comprehend what it sig- 
nified to us, and later we learned that all this 
was only their way of making us welcome. But 
you can imagine how shocked we were, and with 
what haste I conducted my wife to the school 
building. 

Hardly had we shut the door before about forty 
wolfish dogs came about the hovTse, where they 
barked and howled for hours. At length I made 
a large whip with a stick and a piece of rope, 
and at last drove them yelping away. 

But the dogs were nothing to the shamans, or 
sorcerers. That night three of them kindled a 
ring of fires on the beach, and held a seance. As 
I walked past the place and saw the "doctors" 
lying on the ground within the ring, mvittering 
incantations, a hunter, named Koogak, came 
after me and good-naturedly warned me, by 
signs, not to look at the fire lest the "spirits" 
should enter my body. As we had been warned 
that the shamans are always jealous of white 
teachers, we were somewhat afraid of them, and 
altogether it was a "blue " night for us. 

The next day we arranged our small supply of 
furniture. Having no servant, we were obliged 
to cook for ourselves. I 
found a spring of water at 
a distance, and afterward 
dug a kind of well. Ice 
had already begun to form 
at night. I calked the walls 
of the house, banked it, and 




made ready generally for the long, terrible 
winter. 

After this, for six weeks, we, the teachers, 
were obliged to be pupils and learn the native 
names of things. As the dialect of these Mahle- 
miuts differs somewhat from that of other Es- 
kimos in Alaska, what I had previously learned 
helped me but little. 

The people of this island — who are all one large 
family, much related, which has lived here for 
many generations — were now leaving their sum- 
mer tents and moving into their igloos, or winter 
houses, vvhich are largely underground, and are 
entered through a short tunnel. These habita- 
tions were much warmer than the schoolhouse. 

The first of these winter houses to wliich I took 
my wife "to call," was that of Koogak, the 
hunter, who lived near us and had five children. 
He had come voluntarily to help me in banking 
my house and putting vip the school-bell, and we 
had become well acquainted. After creeping 
tllrol^gh the entranceway, which was no more 
than four feet high, we found ourselves in a cir- 
cular space, which had low bunks about the 
greater part of it, and in the center of which a 
large oil lamp was burning. 

Koogak's wife had just brought in from their 
outer storehouse a piece of fat, raw walrus flesh, 
as large as a ham, from which she was cutting 
small chunks and feeding two little girls — quaint, 
cliunky infants, who, on catching sight of me, 
hid behind some skins hung up around the walls. 



A boy whom tliey called Moosu (Bubby) rushed 
forward and shook hands with Mrs. GambelL 
somewhat to her astonishment. He had learned 
that shaking hands is the American mode of 
greeting, and wished to be polite. 

The mother laughed much and repeated over 
and over again her few English words. Soon 
another boy came in whose name his father told 
us was Heezy-Cry. For a long time we could 
not guess what name was meant, and my wife 
was much shocked on learning that Heezy-Cry 
was their pronunciation of the name of the Sav- 
iour. I mention this to show that they attached 
as little meaning to sacred words as to oaths. 

Another near neighbor was Neewak. He lived 
in a large house with two Shamans, called Tool- 
luk and Aabwook, and had no other family. 
These "medicine-men" claimed that they had, 
two months before, saved Neewak's life. Ac- 
cording to the code prevailing there his life was 
therefore theirs, and he must work to support 
them. It was as if a family physician, after cur- 
ing a patient of fever, should come to his house 
to board for the rest of his life. If the patient 
refused to settle, the "doctor" would bewitch 
him, "steal his heart" and fill him with evil 
spirits. The shamans are all great rascals, and 
like some other rascals in other countries, they 
contrive to live on the fat of the land. 

Calling on our Mahlemiut neighbors would 
have been more agreeable if the odors inside their 
igloos had been less terrible; my wife could en- 



dure them for but a short time, and had little 
relish for her supper after a visit to one of them. 

It was not until the first of November, when 
the days had grown very short, that we felt sure 
we knew words enough to open school and begin 
teaching. I told Koogak that we would •' make 
books talk " the next day at the schoolhouse, and 
that all the children must come when I rang the 
bell. He at once went as my messenger to all 
the houses in the neighborhood and spread the 
news. 

My wife was so much excited the next morning 
that she could hardly prepare our breakfast. At 
ten I began ringing the bell, and with the first 
stroke we heard a mighty confused shouting. 
All were coming on the run — not only the chil- 
dren, but their parents, men and women, old and 
young, the women bringing their babies in their 
lioods, and all hurrying, as if to secure choice 
seats! Every one was shouting with laughter. 
Never before did teachers see such a race to 
reach the schoolhouse. At least twenty dogs, 
each one barking madly, were coming, too. 

Mrs. Ganibell turned pale. " What do they 
mean?" she exclaimed. "What are the old 
ones coming for 1 Are they going to kill us ? " 

' ' Don't you hear them laugh ? " I said. 

"They would laugh at anything," she replied. 

I opened the outside door of the schoolroom, 
and in they all came, over two hundred of them, 
pell-mell, and six or seven dogs besides. 

As the schoolroom was only twenty-five feet 



long by twenty feet wide, they packed it as full 
as a sardine-box. We could hardly stir inside. 
For a while I did not know what to do. The 
noise and the odors were unspeakable ; and worst 
of all, men, women and boys were repeating all 
their store of shocking English words, by way of 
showing their knowledge. Imagine, if you can, 
the scene inside that room ! I do not believe 
that any two teachers ever before had sucli a 
gathering of pupils. 

" Oh, what shall we do ? " my wife said to me, 
almost crying. " What shall we do with them ? " 

"Oh, we shall manage all right," I replied. 
" But we must get rid of the dogs." For these 
curs were barking and snapping at each other. 

I then spoke to Koogak, and told him that it 
was necessary that the room should be quiet, 
that the dogs must be put out, and that the peo- 
ple must all sit down. Koogak instantly bawled 
out the orders ; and the next moment those dogs 
went out, heels over head. Some were kicked 
out, some were flung out bodily over the heads 
of the throng. 

Then the people, still laughing, began to sit 
down. Some sat on the school seats, some on 
the top of the desks, some on the floor and some 
on each other. Mrs. Gambell and myself were 
crowded close against the blackboard and re- 
mained standing. One old shaman was almost 
touching me with his greasy head ; and a woman 
with a fat baby peeping over her shoulders was 
so nearly under my feet that I dared not step. 



But it was the best-tempered crowd I ever 
faced. Their broad smiles were something never 
to be forgotten. Koogak had bidden them all 
hold their tongues, and they were trying hard to 
keep still, but looked ready to burst into a roar. 
Numbers of babies were gurgling and chuckling. 

I felt we must do something to catch their at- 
tention, so I asked Mrs. Gambell, who is clever 
at sketching, to take a piece of chalk and draw 
a walrus on the blackboard behind us. She did 
so in some trepidation, but so well that before 
she had added the tail-flippers I saw a gleam of 
recognition in the faces around us. 

When I pointed and asked, " What is that?" 
there was a shout of " Aabwook!" and they all — 
men, women and children — kept repeating the 
word until Koogak had to tell them to hold their 
tongues. 

When silence prevailed again, I said, "Yes, 
aabwook ; " and Mrs. Gambell then printed that 
word in English letters. 

I then said, ''Aabwook, English Walrus;" and 
Mrs. Gambell then printed that word beside the 
first. I then pronounced it three or four times 
and singling out first one, then another, begin- 
ning with Koogak, bade each repeat it after 
me. They did so with great gusto, but their Es- 
kimo tongues made a bad job of walrus — it was 
volvus and olvus and wolwus and I know not what 
else. I kept them at the word, however, par- 
ticularly the boys, till each one could pronounce 
it passably well. This was not accomplished 



without prodigious contortions of their thick lips. 

Then I had Moosu stand on a box at the board 
and print the words, which, with Mrs. Gambell 
showing him how and guiding his fingers some- 
what, he did pretty well. To see Moosu print 
"book-talk" pleased them all very much; they 
seemed to think he was on the highroad to eru- 
dition, and even the old shaman grinned fright- 
fully. All sat breathlessly watching the print- 
ing, but when Mrs. Gambell rubbed it out they 
laughed uproariously. To see the words disap- 
pear was to them very funny. 

After walrus we took up, in the same way, 
oomiak, meaning boat; pussy, meaning seal; 
parka, meaning coat, and ten other words. That 
was the first day's lesson, and gave us two hours 
of the hardest work. At the end of that time 
the state of the small room, packed so full of 
these uncleanly people, was such that an inter- 
mission was highly desirable. 

We had but one session that day, but that was 
enough to rob my wife of all appetite for dinner. 
But in undertaking to teach and civilize barba- 
rous people, one must not be squeamish. It is 
no holiday task. If one is not sustained by a 
high purpose he will soon be very homesick. 

On the next day not quite so many came, and 
we began to get to work in a more orderly man- 
ner. I felt sure that the old people would soon 
go about the ordinary business of their lives, and 
so, indeed, it happened. Bvit the young folk 
continued to come with considerable regularity. 



At first hardly any of the girls came. The lit- 
tle Eskimo girls of St. Lawrence Island are the 
most timid, bashful creatures that can be im- 
agined ; they skulk and hide like hares. And bj^ 
the way, there is little in the native dress to 
distinguish boys from girls, and for awhile we 
could hardly tell them apart. Soon my wife in- 
quired into the non-attendance of the girls, and 
learned that they were afraid, both of me and of 
the larger boys. 

At last she persuaded Mrs. Koogak to bring her 
two little daughters to the schoolhouse one 
afternoon, after the usual pupils had been dis- 
missed, and then set to work in kindergarten 
ways to interest and reassure the chubby tojs. 
Others were afterward brought, and in the course 
of a week Mrs. Gambell had collected seventeen 
girls for a kind of evening~school, beginning at 
three o'clock every afternoon. 

The sun now rose a little before ten o'clock in 
the morning, and set before two in the after- 
noon. When the weather was cloudy we had to 
keep a lamp constantly burning. Even on fair 
days it was dark at three o'clock in the after- 
noon. On the afternoon of December fifth, an 
adventure befell Mrs. Gambell and her class of 
girls. 

A thick poorga, or snow-storm, had whirled 
down upon us the day before from the north ; a 
foot of snow had Jfallen, and great drifts nearly 
buried the village and blocked up the windows 
of the schoolhouse. Ice-floes, packing against 



the coast, pressed great masses ashore in hum- 
mocks twenty or thirty feet in height. The en- 
tire sea, across to Siberia, was covei'ed with ice. 

Most of the boys came early to school despite 
the storm, and in the afternoon two of the Es- 
kimo women wallowed through the drifts to 
bring their little girls. I dismissed the boys for 
the day, when I saw my neighbor, Koogak, has 
tening past the schoolhouse with his gim. He 
told me he was going to hunt a white bear which 
had come ashore from the ice not far from the 
village, and had dug into a cache of meat belong- 
ing to the Noosik family. 

Muffling myself in my fur coat and hood, and 
snatching up my gun, I went along with him to 
see the sport. Althovigh the snow was flying so 
fiercely that one could hardly see an object ten 
yards away, we were joined by fourteen or fif- 
teen others. We found the bear's tracks several 
times, but soon lost them again among the ice 
hummocks to which the animal had retired. 

We went for a while into Shuglavvina's house, 
to warm ourselves and to turn out the dogs, after 
which we again M'ent forth and spent an hour or 
more hunting among the hummocks. We found 
no bear, however, for the best of i-easons. The 
bear was now at the other end of the village, 
and my wife was having all the " sport " at the 
schoolhouse. 

The storm was so severe that only five of the 
girls had come at three o'clock. The lamp was 
set on the teacher's desk, and Mrs. Gambell had 



the girls about her there. Suddenly they heard 
a kind of scratching noise, and a glass pane of 
the window at tlie other end of the schoolroom 
was broken inward, and the pieces rattled on the 
floor. They looked up and saw the nose of some 
large creature there, sticking in at the hole. 

Mrs. (iambell declares she did not scream, but 
undoubtedly she, as well as the little girls, was 
much startled. Two of her pupils hid them- 
selves under the desk, but Tummasok, a girl be- 
tween thirteen and fourteen years old, seized the 
iron rod with which we poked the coal fire and 
ran resolutely forward to repulse the beast. But 
before she could reach the window the bear with- 
drew its nose, and immediately afterward they 
heard it on the other side of the house, trying to 
dig under the sill, near where our provisions 
were stored. Mrs. Gambell locked the door and 
then listened. 

The beast, not succeeding in digging under the 
house, ran several times around the schoolhouse, 
probably in quest of food. Soon it returned to 
the window and again thrust its nose in at the 
hole till the sharp edges of the glass cut it — as 
we discovered afterward. Tummasok struck at 
it and broke a second pane. Mrs. Gambell, ven- 
turing forward also, pulled down the curtain. 

The bear again ran around the house and be- 
gan digging near the door. Their greatest fear, 
however, was lest the animal should burst 
through the window. 

Bethinking herself that wild animals are said 



to be afraid of fire, my wife took the lamp in one 
hand and an old newspaper in the other, and ap- 
proaching the window, posted herself there to 
await the bear's return. 

She did not have long to wait ; the bear soon 
came back to snuflf at the broken glass. Thei'e- 
upon my wife set fire to the paper, threw the 
curtain up, and let the paper flame up in front 
of the glass. Although Tummasok nearly put 
out the blaze by whacking away at the bear's 
face with the poker, it probably disconcerted the 
creature and drove him off. At any rate, when 
I returned, fifteen or twenty ininutes later, and 
tried to open the door, there was no bear about. 

My wife and her pupils heard me trying to get 
in, and Tummasok, thinking that I was the bear 
returning, whacked hard with the poker upon 
the inside of the door to scare it away. When I 
spoke, they cried out for joy, and made haste to ' 
let me in. About an hour later Neewak shot a 
polar bear, as large as a cow, near his house. The 
two shamans had heard it digging into their 
cache of meat just outside the door. The animal 
had three or four little cuts in its nose, in which 
were a bit or two of broken glass. It was the 
same oile which had frightened my wife. 

During the first week we could hardly tell our 
small Eskimo pupils apart; their black heads 
and round, flat faces seemed as much alike as so 
many peas in a pod. But in intelligence they 
differed as much as white children do. 

By the tenth of December the men and women 



stopped coming to school as pupils, but contin- 
ued to drop in at odd times to look on. We had 
over fifty young people who came with fair reg- 
ularity. It was impossible to learn their ages. 
Eskimo parents seldom remember the age of a 
child who is more than three years old. When 
asked when their children were born, they would 
reply, "A-pan-ee" — Long ago. The boys were 
all the way from five to twenty years old. 

The girls were so shy, and at first so much 
afx-aid of me, that my wife taught them by 
themselves; but as they gained confidence, we 
gave them seats in the schoolroom, and had but 
one session. 

Imagine, if you can, how the fifty-five young 
Eskimos looked in the schoolroom, on those dark 
winter days when a lamp had nearly always to 
be kept burning. On the right-hand side, in the 
front row, facing the teacher's desk, sat Angeit, 
a boy about thirteen years old, as we supposed. 
Angeit signifies the "catcher," or "snatcher," 
and it was an appropriate name for the lad — 
I shall have to confess privately that Mrs. Gam- 
bell called him " Swipes." 

He was inclined at first to pocket everything 
lie could lay hands on. We taught him better; 
but still it would have been wrong to expose 
him to much temptation. He had a very round 
head, small black eyes and a wide mouth, and 
he wore over his fur jacket a kind of jumper 
made of a flour-sack that had the name of the 
brand in big letters on the back of it. He was 



proud of this jumper, and the others envied him 
its possession. 

Next to him was Sipsu, supposed to be fifteen. 
Sipsu is the handsomest boy in the school, and 
all too well aware of it. Those who suppose that 
a Mahlemiut boy would have little to be vain of 
should see "Sip" admire himself in Mrs. Gam- 
bell's hand-mirror. A few years hence he will 
be the dandy of the village, no doubt. 

At the desk next his was Kannakut, whom 
the other boys call "Hennay," or "girl-boy," 
because nearly every day he carried his little 
sister, Seenatah, to school on his back. She is 
too young to come to school, but I think that 
her mother wishes to get her out of the way, 
and so compels Kannakut, who seeins fond of the 
child, to bring her with him. 

To keep her still in school-time, he gives her 
little chunks of walrus fat, of which her mouth 
is usually full. This queer little creature bit 
my wife's finger quite severely the first time 
she approached her, to poor Kannakut's un- 
bounded regret. Kannakut has a good, kind 
heart. He learned to read easy English in two 
months ; and he can now add, subtract and mul- 
tiply as well as manj^ white boys. He knows 
the multiplication table up to the elevens. 

At Kannakut's left sat another boy, named 
Poosay, whom Mrs. Gambell, who often sees the 
humorous side of things, calls "Pussy" — for 
many long, stiff hairs grow about his mouth, 
and give him a truly catlike^appearance. 



Behind Poosay sat Toodlamuk, who has two 
of the longest, whitest eye-teeth I ever saw pro- 
jecting from the mouth of a human being ! 
Even when his mouth is closed, they visibly pro- 
ject and give him a dangerous look. But we 
have never heard of his biting any one, and he is 
a bright pupil. 

In the front row was a boy whom Mrs. Gam- 
bell named Mozart, he was so hopelessly addicted 
to humming a tune in school. He appeared to 
do it unconsciously. One particular bar or re- 
frain which he was constantly crooning, was to 
our surprise much like a call which boys whistle 
in the United States. He also knew a part of 
"Solomon Levi," which Captain Healy, of the 
revenue cutter Bear, had taught him, and all of 
"Yankee Doodle." 

Our "noisy boy" was called Tattarat. He was 
one of the clattering, thumping sort of boys who 
are always dropping things, and bumping their 
heads against the desk when they pick them up. 
He is our only really ragged boy. Mrs. Gambell 
calls him "Tatters," and has grown weary of 
patching him up; he has the kind of elbows 
which will come through any sleeves. 

There was Nossabok, too, the boy who per- 
sisted in bringing his pet cat to school, for fear 
the dogs would kill it if he left it at home. This 
cat was brought from the Aleutian Islands, and 
was, so far as I know, the only one in the village. 
It had very thick yellow fur, and its body was 
as round as a log. 



The ' ' belle " of the school was Pingassuk, a 
girl about fourteen years old, and she is really 
rather pretty, for she is much less chubby and 
greasy than most of her companions. She came 
to school at first wearing yellow nloccasins and 
a suit — parka, hood and trousers — of white seal 
fur. Even her little mittens are white. She 
has pretty dark eyes and long lashes. Her com- 
plexion is so clear that a pink flush often shows 
on her cheek. In her thick braids of hair are 
stuck pink shell ornaments, and her smiles are 
emphasized by two queer little streaks of ochre 
at each corner of her mouth. "Pin" holds all 
the boys in immense disdain ; and they hardly 
venture to steal a glance at her. 

At the same desk with "Pin " was seated poor 
little Kolleluk, who lost a foot from freezing, 
several winters ago ; she hops and hobbles about 
with the aid of a kind of cane made from the 
rib of a whale. Diu'ing the first term of school 
Kolleluk learned to read fairly well from the 
First Reader. 

At the desk behind " KoUie " sat a very odd- 
looking child, who has a pink face and white 
hair — one of those freaks of nature, which oc- 
cur among human beings as well as among other 
animals, and which are called albinos. From 
some superstitious notion, her parents dress her 
in black fur, which contrasts strongly with her 
white hair. Her name is Okiakuta, which my 
wife has abbreviated to " O. K." 

Near to " O, K." sat Esanetuk, whose appear- 



ance always threatened our gravity till we came 
to know what a good, common-sense little girl 
she is. One of her cheeks, the left one, is vastly 
larger than the other, which gives her face a 
curiously one - sided aspect. Esanetuk prints 
beautifully with the chalk crayon, and also 
draws, after a queer, homely fashion of her own. 
My wife is very fond of her. 

Near her sat Tukeliketa, whose face always 
shone like a freshly fried doughnut. She was 
the greasiest child I ever saw; in Biblical lan- 
guage, her little hard braids of hair might be 
said to " drop fatness. " Her book, soaked with 
grease, would have burned like a candle-wick. 
It took Mrs. Gambell most of the winter to teach 
Tukeliketa — the name means ' ' butterfly — to use 
soap and abjure grease externally. 

Another little girl, who put my wife to much 
trouble, was called Coogidlore. She seemed to 
be affected with constitutional drowsiness. It 
was nearly impossible to keep her awake in 
school hours. We would hear a little " purring " 
sound, and that would be Coogidlore asleep at 
her desk. The lirst time she came, I heard the 
noise, and thought it was the purring of Nossa- 
bok's cat. Very soon she rolled off her seat to 
the floor beneath the desk. Mrs. Gambell 
roused her and set her to study, but within five 
minutes she was sound asleep again. 

Most of the girls, as I have said before, were 
very bashful; and Annevik, who sought a seat 
in the extreme dark corner, was painfully so. 



This child lived in a very agony of shyness. If I 
glanced in her direction, she would cringe and 
hide her face. For several weeks she wore her 
little parka of blue fox fur hindside before, in 
order to have the hood in front to hide her face in. 

Little enough like Annevik was Topetatu, 
whom Mrs. Gambell called "Topsy." Her Eski- 
mo mother had arrayed her in a kind of gown, 
made of cotton print, with large yellow sun- 
flowers on it. This tremendous innovation in 
"style" had been obtained from a whaling ves- 
sel which had once anchored in the bay. Mrs. 
Gambell laughed till the tears came when Topsy 
first appeared at school in that ludicrous gown. 
Her hair was tightly braided in nine little rat- 
tails at variovis angles ; her little eyes twinkled 
with merriment; her thick lips were usually 
vs^ide apart, showing a row of broad white teeth. 
Topsy was quick to learn, but forgot everything 
by the next day. For a long time she seemed to 
us to have no memory whatever. 

Behind Topsy sat a good, strong girl, named 
Tummasok, who was supposed to be thirteen 
years old. This was the girl who struck the 
white bear's nose with the iron poker ; and she 
was, I think, our most typical Mahlemiut girl. 
After the tenth of December Tummasok rarely 
failed to appear at the schoolhouse, and always 
wore sealskin boots and a white fox parka and 
hood. Her stepfather was known to be very 
cruel to her, but this she constantly denied when, 
my wife questioned her. 



In December, when the days were at their 
shortest, the sun showed for barely three hours 
above the horizon, and was so low in the south 
that it afforded little warmth. During stormy 
weather the light was very faint, and the people 
in their dark houses did not always bestir them- 
selves in the morning. Kanuakut and Tumnia- 
sok usually came to the schoolhouse by ten 
o'clock; but many of the others would sleep 
over a day, unless I went to louse them. They 
appeared to be dormant, like hibernating ani 
mals. 

At length, I made a practice of setting off at 
nine o'clock every morning, with my lantern 
and schoolroom bell, to arouse and summon our 
pupils. I would ring the bell in front of each 
house till signs of life were shown. 

But with all this, they often failed to come to 
school until my wife invented a novel kind of 
reward of merit. She made dozens of crumpy 
little " cookies," and gave one to each pupil who 
reached the schoolhouse at ten. These were a 
great success. 

The fact is that these poor children were now 
going hungry, and that is one reason why they 
did not like to stir forth in the cold. "Poorga" 
had followed "poorga," and these snow gales 
had so packed the ice about St. Lawrence Island 
that neither seal nor walrus appeared at sea. 
The hunters could find nothing. Even fishing 
was impracticable. 

At the schoolhouse we had a year's supply of 



food and fuel, and by making everything snug, 
contrived to keep comfortable; but almost be- 
fore we were aware, the natives were on the 
brink of starvation. We looked over our pro- 
visions, and found we could spare a dozen cans 
of baked beans to give our pupils a dinner after 
school. It was pitiful to see them eat, all the 
raoi'e so as nearly all of them tried hard not to 
appear greedy. 

x^s I was dealing out the hot beans to them 
I noticed that they regarded the bright labels 
on the cans curiously, and therefore I gave Kan- 
nakut, Poosay, Tummasok and six or seven others 
each an empty can. To our surprise, they at 
once stopped eating and put their beans back 
into the cans. When we asked them why they 
did so, Poosay replied that they wished to take 
the beans home to their families, who were as 
hungry as they. Would white children be more 
thoughtful or self-denying than this ? 

During the latter part of January these poor 
villagei's boiled and ate all the walrus hide 
which they jiossessed as well as the skins of 
their summer tents, and even their dog har- 
nesses and whips. Our pupils now often looked 
blue and pinclied, and we gave them every mor- 
sel of food that we dared spare. 

While school was in session one day, about 
twelve o'clock, we heard shouts throughout the 
village. The men appeared to be hastening to 
and fro. A great crack had opened in the ice- 
fields, some thi-ee miles at sea. The open water 



13 




" AT WHICH HER BROAD MOUTH EXPANDED IN A TREMENDOUS SMILE." 



was a mile or more in length and several hun- 
dred feet wide. In and about the borders of it 
were many seals, several walruses, and a dead 
whale, frozen in the ice. 

Naturally every hunter of this starving ham- 
let desired to reach the crack with his harpoon 
and gun as soon as possible. The first comers 
were likely to fare best. Our big boys were ex- 
pected to go, yet they sat waiting hungrily until 
I gave them permission. Twenty-one of them 
bowed most respectfully and walked out of the 
room as orderly as soldiers ; but you should have 
seen them run once they were outside ! 

The younger children sat listening eagerly to 
every sound outside ; and finding their attention 
so completely distracted, I closed school early 
and let them all go. In fact, my wife and I 
were greatly interested in the hunt, so much de- 
pended on it. 

The weather was cloudy and the sky very 
dark, with a rising, sighing wind. When I left 
the schoolhouse all but the old women and young 
children had gone away across the ice-fields. I 
took my own gun and started to follow them. 
The trail of the hunters was easily discernible in 
the snow among the hummocks. 

I had gone no more than a mile when I met 
my neighbor, Koogak, his wife and their two 
boys coming back to the village, loaded down 
with seal meat. Mrs. Koogak was carrying a 
most incredible load. When she set the mass 
down to rest, I attempted to lift it, but could not 



raise it from the ice — at which her broad mouth 
expanded in a tremendous smile. In addition to 
her load she was di-agging the carcass of a seal 
after her by a thong. 

This family had among them no less than a 
thousand pounds of seal meat, and their faces 
were broad with smiles. When an Eskimo has 
made a good hunt his cup of joy is full, and he 
takes little thought for the future. "To-mor- 
row is another day," he says. 

Koogak, thoughtful for my safety, urged me to 
go back to the island, putting up his hand to 
show me that the wind had changed and was 
beginning to blow hard. When I started to go 
on, he set down his load and followed me, still 
insisting that I should return with them to the 
land. 

The wisdom of Koogak's advice was soon ap- 
parent. It perhaps saved my life. We had not 
reached the island before the most frightful 
noises issued from the ice all about us. The 
great hummocks were cracking asunder with 
frightful crashes that boomed far along the 
coast. The change of wind was starting the 
great ice-fields away from the island ; and where 
the hummocks were frozen to the shore, there 
was a fearfvil rending and grinding. For a few 
minutes we were in great peril among the split- 
ting floes, but at last jumped to land. 

The dusk of a stormy evening had settled on 
the village, and most of the people were still 
away on the ice-fields, which were now in mo- 



tion, near and far, the black water of the ex- 
posed sea seething and foaming up in the open- 
ing cracks. In the fast gathering darkness we 
saw men and women at a distance, loaded with 
seal meat, all hurrying to escape being carried 
out to sea, for the ice, under pressure of the 
strong wind, was moving away from the shore. 
Tlie noise was like continuous thunder ; and al- 
ready a driving gale of snow was setting in. It 
seemed to me that all who had not reached the 
shore must be crushed or drowned. 

As I stood straining my eyes in the gloom and 
snow, my wife ran down to the shore, sobbing as 
if heart-broken. She had heard the crashing of 
the ice and feared that I was lost. The thought 
of being left alone there must have been terrible 
to her. 

The people farthest out, when they saw that 
the ice-field had left the shore, turned and ran 
for the cape, a mile farther to the west. The 
ice-field was turning and doubling about this 
headland and remained jammed against it for an 
hour or more, so that all the villagers got ashore 
there, except five. These were cut off by a great 
crack which suddenly appeared between them 
and the land. Among those were Kannakut and 
Angeit, who had started on the hunt behind the 
others, and had gone farther along the crack, in 
pursuit of a walrus. We heard them shouting 
dolefully, far off in the storm. It was pitiful to 
think that we could do nothing. The ice was 
mostly afloat now, and it had grown very dark. 



The Mahlemiuts who had escaped said little. 
They are hardened to accidents of this kind. 
Many turned away stolidly and went home with 
their packs of meat. 

Thinking that the unfortunates might be 
helped if enabled to keep their bearings on the 
ice, I lighted my best oil-lantern and hoisted it 
to the top of the flagstaff on the schoolhouse. . 
Mrs. Gambell, too, began tolling the large school 
bell, which was hung on the roof. Heard in the 
storm of that wild, sad night, the strokes were 
most melancholy. After a time I begged her to 
desist ; for I believed that she was fatiguing her- 
self needlessly, and that the bell could do no 
good. 

"Oh, but it may cheer them," she said. "And 
it is all I can do for them ! " 

After every five minutes she resumed the task 
and continued it through the long, mournful 
night. At times I relieved her; but she did 
most of the ringing, and sat watching our little 
clock during the intervals of silence. 

At daylight nothing could be discerned out at 
sea, save a waste of stormy water and white ice- 
cakes. But as the light increased, we saw that 
a large " field " had grounded, three or four miles 
to the eastward; and within an hour Kannakut 
and three of the others came plodding wearily 
to the village. They had succeeded in getting 
ashore at daylight, but were badly frost-bitten, 
and had come near to perishing. 

Angeit, — poor little Swipes ! — while trying to 



jump across a crack had slipped and fallen in. 
If he rose at all, he probably came up under the 
ice. 

Almost the first words of those who returned 
were about the bell which they had heard all 
night. The lantern they had seen but once or 
twice, owing to the storm. But the bell had 
cheered them greatly. To use Kannakut's own 
words: " It made our hearts strong." 

Certain prominent educators objected to the 
plan to establish schools among the Eskimos of 
northern Alaska; they said that the attempt 
would fail and prove a waste of money. They 
believed that the Eskimos could make no use of 
education, and could not acquire it, for lack of 
memory and application. They declared the Es- 
kimos are improvident and thoughtless and in- 
capable of anything better than barbarous 
poverty. . 

It is easy for professors of ethnology to advance 
such theories, but I think it better to judge by 
the facts gathered from actual experience in an 
Eskimo schoolroom. 

At our school on St. Lawrence Island we have 
Eskimo boys of fifteen and sixteen, who, after 
only two years of schooling, can read the Eng- 
lish of the Second Reader with considerable flu- 
ency, and who have advanced in arithmetic as 
far as decimal fractions. They can add, sub- 
tract, multiply and divide with a fair degree of 
accuracy. In fact, the average Eskimo boy is a 
good natural mathematician. Those boys are 



often quicker in reckoning than white boys at 
home. 

As far as I can discern, they remember from 
day to day, from week to week, and from the 
first winter of school to the next winter as well 
as any other boys. Some things they forget, 
but so do all boys. Indeed it is a mis- 
take to suppose that because these boys are Es- 
kimos, they are not very much like other boys, 
the world over. To change Burns's immortal 
line a little, " A boy's a boy for a' that," wher- 
ever you find him. The difference is developed 
later in life, and is caused by different habits 
and different modes of living. 

As to the other objection, namely, that an edu- 
cation will do an Eskimo no good, it is like 
the first, founded on theory instead of on fact. 
The education which we are giving the boys and 
girls of this village is doing great good already, 
for it has led the boys to reject the odious super- 
stitions with which the shamans, or sorcerers, 
contrive to hold the natives in a state of slavish 
terror. 

My older boys now laugh at the threats which 
the shamans make, and ridicule their antics. 
With one generation of free schools shamanism 
in Alaska will die out, and no one who has not 
lived in an Eskimo village can understand what 
a curse it is, and what abominable crimes are 
committed by the sorcerers. 

The shamans were the only persons at St. Law- 
rence Island of whom we were really afraid. 



Should any disaster happen or any epidemic oc- 
cur, these scowling old rascals would be sure to 
pretend that it was due to our presence, and so 
to work on the superstition of the natives that 
they would be led to murder us. 

Two shamans had qviartered themselves on a 
hunter, named Neewak, who lived only a few 
hundred yards from the schoolhouse; and if they 
had been two man-eating crocodiles, Mrs. Gam- 
bell could not have been more afraid of them. 

One of them, Aabwook, frequently lurked 
about our house after dark. Time and again, on 
opening the outer door suddenly, I came vipon 
him, listening there, or would catch a glimpse of 
him stealing away in the darkness. What he 
was doing or what he wanted was a vexatious 
mystery ; but owing to our well-nigh defenceless 
condition, I thought it prudent not to resent his 
espionage. Yet all the while we were well aware 
that both he and Toolluk would do us mischief 
if they could ; and had they not been afraid that 
Captain Healy, of the cutter Bear, wovild inquire 
into it and hang them, I make little doubt they 
would have had us killed. 

From the very nature of things, there can be 
no truce between free schools and the sorcerers. 
The schools spread useful knowledge ; the sham- 
ans thrive on ignorance and superstition. When 
ignorance goes their occupation will go, too, as 
they well know. 

Like the priests of all false religions, the Eski- 
mo shamans are not wholly hypocrites. They 



believe to some extent in the spirits and demons 
which they pretend to invoke. But they are 
cheats in most of the practices with which they 
frighten the people. 

Old Toolluk and Aabwook were at once laugh- 
able and terrifying. At fir.st, they came to school 
with tlie others, to look on and watch us; for 
they regarded us as rival white sorcerers. If we 
possessed new ' ' ' charms " or " tricks of the 
trade," they hoped to find them out for their own 
use. 

The desire to learn our methods was probably 
the chief reason why Aabwook played the Paul 
Piy about our doors and windows. He also tried 
to ' ' bewitch " us, use the power of the evil eye, 
and make incantations which would cause the 
Eskimo demons to enter our house. Moreover, 
he was a cunning thief — a regular old fox. A 
book would hardly suffice to contain all the irri- 
tating, odious experiences which we had with 
this unspeakable old knave. 

A shed and other outbuildings adjoining the 
schoolhouse were built for us the second year, in 
which to store our season's provisions, fuel and so 
forth. They were placed at the end of our apart- 
ment and offered fine lurking-places for the 
shamans. 

There were no windows in the store-shed — a 
strong structure of planks — and but one door, 
that from our kitchen, opened into it. No one 
could enter it save through our room doors; and 
no native, so far as we knew, had done so. But 



18 



one morning in January, my wife, who was get- 
ting the breakfast, while I went through the vil- 
lage witli my bell to wake our pupils, discovered 
on the floor of the shed, just in front of the thresh- 
old of the door from the kitchen, a cabalistic 
mark. It was a rude, oblong figure, in dull red, 
with little crosses at the corner, and a grinning 
visage at the center. It was the work of one of 
the shamans, and they believe, or at least say, 
that if a person steps across one of these signs 
unsvispectingly a disease-demon will enter his 
body. 

In some excitement as well as indignation my 
wife called my attention to it, as soon as I re- 
turned. I could not refrain from laughing, yet 
1 felt mystified and uncomfortable. We had not 
the least doubt who had placed it there ; but how 
lie had contrived to do so was what puzzled us. 

' ' Now how in the world did the old torment 
get in ? " was Mrs. Gambell's first question. We 
examined the walls of the shed, the roof and the 
floor. Every plank was nailed fast. When both 
of VIS were in the schoolroom we always kept our 
outer door bolted, and so we were sure that he 
could not have slipped in covertly. In fact, we 
were mystified, and my wife shed tears of vexa- 
tion. 

" Oh dear ! " she lamented. ' ' To think that we 
can have nothing and do nothing without being 
intruded on and spied upon by this malicious 
wretch ! It is horrible ! " 

I sought to laugh over it and ridicule the sham- 



an, but the thing rendered me more uneasy than 
I liked to confess. At night I lay awake for hours, 
listening for sounds in the shed. A few days 
later, following a severe snowstorm, I was pros- 
trated for two days by a bad cold. It was not 
prudent for me to leave the house, or even to go 
into the schoolroom, and as I lay looking out of 
window during the few hours of daylight, I had 
for encouragement on my sick-bed the sight of 
Aabwook walking up and down before the liouse 
waving his arms to and fro and muttering strange 
imprecations — to stimulate the disease-demon 
which he believed he had summoned into my 
body. 

His behavior tortured my wife so much that 
she fell ill of a cold herself. While taking care 
of her, I noticed that Toolluk had joined Aabwook 
in his perambulations outside our door. 

As long as the short daylight lasted, I could 
see them going up and down, muttering, groaning 
and swinging their arms. Whether they kept 
up their incantations all night, I do not know, 
for I was too anxious about my wife and too 
nearly ill myself, to watch them after dark. 

The next day they were there again, and it be- 
came well-nigh maddening to see them pass. It 
was disheartening enough to be ill in a heathen 
land, three thousand miles from a physician ; but 
to watch those two sorcerers, in their efforts to 
render our illness a mortal one, was far more de- 
pressing. Their malevolent antics at last worked 
on my nerves to such an extent that I was hardly 



able to restrain myself from going forth with a 
club and assaulting them. 

Despite the "demons," we were both feeling 
quite well again by the fifth day ; and when the 
shamans appeared, we opened the door and tri- 
umphed over them by bidding them a most smil- 
ing good morning ! Never have I seen a keener 
spasm of disgust pass over the human counte- 
nance than that which puckered old Aabwook's 
leering visage at sight of our apparent good 
health. They had expected to find us at our last 
gasp. It is difficvilt to preserve a Christian spirit 
toward those who hate you so. and seek in every 
way to bring about your death. 

Unfortunately our own attack of influenza was 
followed by several cases among ovir pupils ; and 
from what is known of the disease, I had little 
doubt that they took it from us. The shamans 
were not slow to go about, declaring that the 
"spirits" were angry on account of the presence 
of the white teachers in the village, and that the 
children were bewitched from handling the 
school-books, slates, chalk and so forth. Eleven 
pupils ceased to come to the schoolhouse. In 
these circumstances I deemed it best to give 
more thought to curing than to teaching the 
others. Fortunately, we had medicines and also 
disinfectants. 

Our first step was to disinfect the schoolroom 
thoroughly, at night after school, by keeping it 
full of brimstone fumes for several hours. We 
also made use of chlorides. 



Several of the families were reluctant to have 
us visit the sick children, or to have them take 
our medicines, but I insisted on administering 
quinine, with the result that all save one recov- 
ered in the course of a few days, and showed pro- 
digious appetites. Then, contrary to the advice 
and threats of the shamans, eight of the absentees 
returned to school. Naturally the spite of the 
sorcerers against us increased. 

During the last week of February Toolluk 
caused the death of one of our pupils, a little boy 
six years old. The "child was ill ; the shamans 
told its parents that the white sorcerers had be- 
witched it, and that it must be exposed out-of- 
doors at night. They obeyed, and the poor little 
fellow soon died, whereupon Toolluk no doubt 
said that our sorcery had been too strong to be 
overcome. 

Not long after this I was made aware that Aab- 
wook had gained access to our storehouse again. 
Three dozen cans of beef, not to mention other 
supplies, had disappeared. This time I discov- 
ered how he had got in. Adjoining the store- 
house at its far end was a very small lean-to. 
The thievish shaman had dug a hole through a 
deep snow-drift at the back to the sill, and then 
tunnelled under this, and so come up inside. 

At first, I said nothing of my discovery to my 
wife ; but I asked Kannakut, one of my oldest, 
most trustworthy pupils, to make an errand to 
Neewak's house, where Aabwook had quartered 
himself, and report to me whether any of my 



20 



beef-cans were about the igloo. Kannakut in- 
formed me the next day that he had seen both 
shamans eating the beef. Now, among the Es- 
kimos; stealing from a neighbor's cache of food is 
deemed the meanest of crimes. 

I determined to surprise Aabwook if he crept 
into our storehouse again and hold him up to 
public scorn. In the lean-to I placed a heavy 
stick of wood in such a way that, if pulled a lit- 
tle, it would fall against and tightly close the 
door into the storeroom. Then to the stick I at- 
tached a clothes-line which I led along the ceil- 
ing and over the doors into the kitchen. It was 
a good, if rough, trap. My plan was to watch 
for Aabwook, and when he entered cut off his 
retreat by making fast the 
lean to door behind liim. That 
done, I meant to keep him a 
prisoner, until I could summon 
the entire village to witness 
his discomfiture. 

My wife was so filled with 
cviriosity concerning the stick 
and line that I was obliged 
to take her into my confidence. 
She at once exclaimed that 
merely to expose the villain 
was not the half or the quarter 
of his deserts. The natives 
were so much afraid of him, 
she said, that he would go 
unpunished. ' ' And I want 




to see him punished ? " she exclaimed with 
energy. 

Mrs. Gambell has a kindly, generous heart and 
is very charitable ; but this shaman had so out- 
raged all decency toward us, and persecuted us 
so long that her patience was gone. She was filled 
with anxiety, too, lest in removing Aabwook 
from the storehouse, he might stab or otherwise 
injure me. 

" Even a scratch from his dirty old nails might 
poison any one ! " she declared ; and in fact the 
old rascal did look poisonous. ' ' He ought to be 
fumigated ! He ought to be disinfected ! If we 
can entrap him, let's smoke him with the sul- 
phur kettle ! " 

Such a thing may appear ridiculous, but we 
knew that the sorcerers were afraid of the white 
man's "medicine," and so we concocted a plan 
for fumigating Aabwook. There was a small 
trap-door in the floor of our kitchen, under which 
I had previously had a coal-bin and where there 
was space enough to creep along under the floor 
of the storehouse. I cut a hole in the storehouse 
floor at a point where it would be concealed be- 
hind the tiers of goods boxes, and placed the sul- 
phur kettle there, well charged and so arranged 
that when the sulphur was fired the fumes would 
rise directly through the hole. 

My vigils by night was fruitless, however. 
Aabwood did not appear, although we soon found 
that more of our provisions had been taken. At 
length we discovered that the pilferer crept in 



toward the end of school hours, after it had 
grown dark, while Mrs. Gambell and I were busy 
with the singing exercise. 

Finally, I made a little hole in the kitchen 
door, and placed Kannakut bhere to listen. I 
confided to him what I suspected, and instructed 
him how to pull the line. The result was that 
on the second afternoon Kannakut entrapped the 
shaman, and came in haste to inform me of his 
success. 

Bidding our pupils remain seated, I hurried to 
the kitchen. There was a great noise inside the 
storehouse, at the lean-to door. 

"Aabwook!" I shouted at the hole in the 
door, using the Eskimo tongue. "The white 
man's ' charm ' has caught you ! " . . . 

The noise I made brought Mrs. Gambell hurry- 
ing forth, and after her came all our pupils. 
Meantime, with Kannakut's assistance, I pin- 
ioned him securely with the clothes line. While 
we were thus occupied an alarm had gone forth. 
As many as a hundred natives came to the 
schoolhouse. 

Aabwook lay in the snow, still blinking some- 
what hazily ; four meat-cans had dropped from 
the pouch of his parA;o, and I improved the occa- 
sion to relate what he had done to us, and also 
what the white man's "medicine" had done to 
him. I bade them all look at him well and ob- 
serve that he was a sneak-thief and a cheat. 

The men would have laid hands on him if I had 
given the word; but I said," Let him go home," 



and cast him loose. He sneaked away, followed 
by the hoots of those of the younger generation. 
I cannot say what vengeance he may be planning 
for the future, but he has kept away from the 
schoolhouse from that day to this. 

After the successful issue of our long struggle 
with the shamans or medicine-men, school went 
on smoothly for many months, and we became 
so much interested in the progress of our pupils 
that the time passed pleasantly. Several of our 
boys and girls, particularly Sipsu, Tummasok, 
"Mozart" and Esanetuk, proved to have good 
voices ; and as a cabinet organ had been sent us 
from home, musical exercises now formed a 
pleasant part of each day's session. 

We had our sports, too. There are two little 
lakes at no great distance inland from the vil- 
lage, and both in the autumn and in the spring 
my wife and I occasionally went with our pupils 
on skating excursions. During the winter, when 
the days were clear and calm, or when there 
was bright moonlight, we sometimes went up 
to the hills to coast. The great ice hummock 
which formed along the shore also afforded 
steep, slippery inclines where there was much 
merry sliding. 

Later, in the spring and summer, during the 
school vacation, we attempted several longer 
excursions into the interior of the island, and 
ascended the Yellow Hills, whence on either 
side the ocean can be seen. There are no trees 
here — nothing but "wild wheat," white-plumed 



tundra grass, and about the ponds and pools a 
few creeping willows. Red and copper-colored 
lichens cover all the rocks and crags of the hills. 
Thousands of ducks and other aquatic birds nest 
about the lagoons and on the shores of the ponds 
and lakes. When I had the time I went out 
shooting ; but at this season one must always 
wear a net and keep hands and ankles well pro- 
tected, as clouds of mosquitoes and gnats assail 
the hunter with unheard-of ferocity. 

On the whole, our Eskimo neighbors were by 
no means bad people to live among. All except 
the four shamans were well disposed to us, and 
often showed their good-will hj neighborly ser- 
vices. Many of them were proud of the prog- 
ress of their children and wei"e grateful for the 
pains we took. 

During the second and third winters my wife 
and I often spoke of what a peaceable village it 
was, and how few quarrels and altei'cations oc- 
curred. Indeed, the tribe was like one large, 
harmonious family. Uniform kindness and 
good humor seemed to be the rule of life. The 
supply of food was sufficient in these years, and 
everybody seemed qviite content. 

Wherein, do you suppose, lay the secret of 
such marked good-fellowship and peace, and 
why was this hamlet of semi-savage Mahlemiuts, 
wholly unprovided with police courts, lawyers, 
or laws of any sort, more peaceful than any civ- 
ilized village in our own country ? It was be- 
cause no intoxicants could be procured. There 



were none on the island. Happy the community 
where alcohol is unknown ! 

Nine years before our arrival at the island a 
trading vessel had sold to the natives a brand of 
vile whiskey in large quantities. In exchange 
for it the Mahlemiuts had given nearly every- 
thing they possessed. Drunken orgies were con- 
stant, and during the ensuing winter nine-tenths 
of the population perished from starvation and 
disease. The struggle of the Eskimo for exist- 
ence in his severe clime is at best a hard one. 
Intoxicants mean ruin and death for him. Since 
then, the survivors of that tragic winter had not 
even seen liquor; and gradually the island was 
becoming repopulated. 

But this "golden age " was fated not to con- 
tinue. One evening we heard an unusual .shout- 
ing at the far end of the village. Twice my wife 
went to the door to listen. " I don't see what it 
can be about," she said, uneasily. 

"One of their tuvik games, probably," I re- 
plied. "They often raise a great shout when a 
player makes a good cast." 

"No; but this doesn't sound good-natured," 
she objected. "It sounds like some drunken 
man." 

I laughed, — it seemed so unlikely, — and said 
that possibly one of the shamans was making a 
"medicine" powwow over some one who had 
eaten too much walrus fat. 

"It doesn't sound like that, either," she re- 
joined. 




THE SCHOOLHOUSE ON ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND. 



We resumed our reading and troubled our- 
selves no further about the matter ; but several 
times afterward that evening, and once in the 
night, I fancied that I heard the shouting. 

The next morning, before school time, while 
yet it was dark, Esanetuk and her little sister, 
Poona, came to our door, looking very cold and 
miserable. They had been crying, and Esanetuk 
had a livid bruise on the side of her face. We 
took them in and gave them breakfast. Tatta- 
rat also came to the schoolhouse at about the 
same time, looking equally woebegone. 

At first, both he and Esanetuk were reluctant 
to tell us why they had come so early and in 
such plight. But after they were warmed and 
fed, the older girl told my wife that her mother 
had beaten them and turned them out of the 
house early in the evening ; and that they had 
been out-of-doors all night. "Tatters" also told 
me much the same story. 

When we asked them what they had done and 
why their parents had beaten them, they at first 
made no answer, and we thought they had been 
doing wrong. At length, Tatters muttered 
something about "gun- water" — using two na- 
tive words, signifying a gun and water. Nothing 
more was said ; but when the other pupils came 
to school, they were all somewhat excited and 
talked a great deal about gun-water. I took 
Kannakut aside and asked him what had hap- 
pened at Esanetuk's house. 

He replied that Hoonakia was there, and that 



she was "cooking gun- water; " that as many as 
fifteen other natives had gone to the house the 
night before to taste it ; and that the uproar we 
had heard came from the people at the house, 
who had danced, sung, shouted and fought dur- 
ing the greater part of the night. 

Hoonakia was a disreputable native woman 
from Cape Prince of Wales, or else Point Hope, 
on the mainland of Alaska. Three weeks before 
a whaler, in passing down from the Arctic, had 
set her ashore on St. Lawrence Island. 

A foreboding of evil fell on us, and after 
school was dismissed that afternoon, my wife 
and I went home wath Esanetuk — ostensibly to 
call. 

At the entrance of the igloo we met Keevalik 
and Nu.smoa, two young hunters, coming forth 
boisterously ; and above the other odors of the 
low passageway, I only too certainly detected 
the sickish smell of alcohol. If I had felt any 
doubt, however, it would have been quickly dis- 
pelled when we pushed aside the bearskin cur- 
tain. 

Esanetuk's father, mother and five or six other 
natives lay on the floor drunk. Two women, 
who were nodding sleepily, squatted on the floor 
in the far corner. But what most interested us 
was the woman who sat beside tlie large, whale- 
fat cooking-lamp in the middle of the igloo and 
tended the flame. This woman was Hoonakia. 
Suspended over the lamp was a large, sheet-iron 
can, the contents of which were boiling and 



25 



simmering with a singing noise. To the nose of 
the can was affixed a rude kind of gooseneck, 
contrived from a large, hollow bone; and from 
this the barrel of a gun projected to one side, 
passing through a kind of pan which Hoonakia 
was heaping up with bits of ice. At the far end 
of the gun-barrel, on the other side of the pan 
of ice, was set a little copper kettle, into which 
dripped a tiny stream of liquor. 

Hoonakia's broad, greasy face expanded in an 
unctuous smile. She was partly intoxicated 
herself, yet she was not so drunk that she could 
not attend to the still — for that was what the 
rude contrivance amounted to. 

" Yeh, yeh, yeh!" she cried, pointing to a 
great basket, set near her, stuffed full of furs, 
skin parkas, mittens, moccasins, and so forth, 
which she had obtained in exchange for her 
liquor. Then, laughing uproariously all the 
while, she summoned the imperfect English she 
had picked up from the whalemen, and said to me, 
' ' You come buj^? You want me glet you dlunk? " 

"Oh, the dreadful creature !" my wife mur- 
mured, hopelessly. 

"All dlunk!" Hoonakia continued, pointing 
gleefully to the prostrated natives about the 
floor, and then patting her basket of furs, she 
said: "Me glet good Mmo," which meant she 
was driving good bargains. 

I approached to examine the still, and Hoona- 
kia, laughing all the time, explained its work- 
ings with great pride. 



Her method was to mix about five quarts of 
molasses and three of wheat flour in five gallons 
of water, and allow it to ferment in the warm 
hut. The large can, containing the "brew," 
was then placed over a cooking-lamp and boiled. 
The vapor from the boiling mess was driven up 
through the bone gooseneck and into the gun- 
barrel, which served as the "woi'm." In the 
gun-barrel, it was condensed by the constant 
exterior application of ice, so that there dripped 
out of the priming-hole end of the barrel as fiery 
and mischievous a liquor as was ever distilled 
by a Tennessee "moonshiner." 

We went home much depressed. There was, 
indeed, cause for uneasiness. During the next 
three w^eeks the village was in an uproar night 
and day. One woman was beaten nearly to 
death in a brawl. A man had been stabbed and 
a girl, named Taskekia, had disappeared ; no one 
knew where she had gone. 

It is almost needless to say that the school 
suffered. Our pupils often failed to attend ; and 
when they appeared they were hungry or ill 
from exposure. At times intoxicated women 
and men would come to the schoolhouse to take 
away their children, and would berate and some- 
times beat them. Altogether, the change in tlie 
village was most lamentable. Many of the men 
had altogether ceased to hunt, and had even ex- 
changed their walrus lances and guns for liquor. 

With crafty forethouglit Hoonakia had traded 
for every sack of wheat flour and all the molas- 



36 



ses which the natives had obtained from trading- 
vessels during the sumraer. In two weeks she 
became the richest person in the village. The 
igloo where she had set up her still was a maga- 
zine of native goods. She was the living em- 
bodiment of the liquor traffic. Thrift, peace and 
harmony had departed from the island. The 
liunters were giving themselves over to drunken- 
ness. They began to gamble, and fights fol- 
lowed. Never before had I been made to see so 
clearly the folly of allowing savages free access 
to liquor. 

For a while, we well-nigh despaired of the 
success of the school. The older people began 
to be morose and hostile toward us. The chil- 
dren grew apathetic and careless ; they stopped 
singing the school songs. Those were dark days. 

One evening in January Mrs. Gambell had 
what she deemed an inspiration. " I'm going to 
reform that Hoonakia !" she said to me. "I'm 
going to make a Christian of her. If I can only 
convert her, we may stop that dreadful still ! " 

The next day she went alone to call on the 
woman, and invited her to come to our house. 
That evening she came, arrayed in all the native 
finery which she had acquired. 

We invited her to dinner, and opened several 
cans of fruit for her delectation. Mrs. Gambell 
also made her several small presents, such as 
women prize. During the next fortnight Hoo- 
nakia was a constant visitor at the schoolhouse, 
and became a regular boarder at our table. 



Having secured the woman's confidence, my 
wife by degrees instilled into her mind the doc- 
trines of a better life. I think it was during 
the last week of January that we first spoke to 
her of the evils of drunkenness. Thus far we 
had not mentioned the subject ; but having made 
a beginning that evening, we both took her in 
hand, and labored earnestly to have her see the 
evil which she was doing with the still. 

Somewhat to our surprise, she saw the evil of 
her ways at once, or seemed to do so. When 
Mrs. Gambell described to her how little Poona 
and Esanetuk came to school, bruised, cold and 
hungry, she shed tears. Never had missionaiy 
a truer penitent ; and when we asked her to give 
up the still, she not only said she would, but 
actually went to the igloo where she lived, and 
brought the contrivance to the schoolhouse for 
me to crush to bits — as I did with great satisfac- 
tion. 

Mrs. Gambell's joy was perfect. "First win 
the hearts of people," she said to me that night. 
' ' The rest follows. This is the way to do good 
in the world." 

We kept Hoonakia at the schoolhouse, doing 
what we could for her comfoi-t, for two days. 
On the afternoon of the second day, during 
school hours, she stole off, and for a week we 
could learn nothing of her. A drunken brawl 
at the igloo of Nassamok, a liunter, was the first 
hint which we obtained as to her whereabouts. 
There she had set up another still. 



Mrs. Gambell's disappointment was painful to 
see. She sought out the woman, and found her 
much the worse for partaking of her own stock 
in trade, but at length persuaded her to retvirn 
to the schoolhouse, and after a day of earnest 
persuasion reformed her again. This time her 
repentance seemed genuine. Weeping great 
tears, she brought the new still to me to destroy, 
and promised never to make another. 

Again we established her at the schoolhouse, 
resolved to watch over her kindly, and succeeded 
in keeping her there for four days, when she 
slipped away at dead of night, and when next 
we heard from her she was running a new still 
" full blast " at the worst place in the village ! 

Not growing weary in well-doing, my wife 
went to Hoonakia once more, but with less hope 
than at first, I fear, and by the exercise of sis- 
terly kindness, converted her for the third time 
from the error of her ways. A relapse ensued 
on the fourth day, however. The same thing 
happened again, and when Hoonakia brought 
her fourth still to me, I suggested that she 
should also bring all that remained of her stock 
of wheat flour and molasses. This she did, in 
all honesty, for there was no doubt of the genu- 
ineness of Hoonakia's change of heai't — while it 
lasted. 

The difficulty with her lay in the fact that, as 
Mrs. Gambell .said, there was "nothing to her — 
no conscience, no intellect, just a few weak 
little emotions and a vicious api)etite." Alas, 



that such characters are not confined to savage 
life ! 

I broke the fourth gooseneck, threw the gun- 
barrel into a snow-bank and crushed the old oil- 
can with the poll of the kitchen axe ; and that 
done, I placed the flour-sacks and the three large 
skinfuls of molasses in our storehouse. 

By this time I was only too well aware that 
there wovild be no lasting reform in that village 
as long as Hoonakia could secure materials for 
making whiskey; and I was at a loss what I 
ought to do with the flour and molasses. That 
night, after school, I asked my faithful boy, 
Kannakut, to go to walk down to the beach 
with me. He now spoke English with a fair de- 
gree of fluency. 

"Kannakut," I said, "what do you think of 
Hoonakia ? " 

He is a reserved, self-respecting boy, and hesi- 
tated before replying. " If a whale-ship comes, 
by and by, I hope she will go away," he said, at 
length. 

"You think that the gun-water is bad, then '! " 
1 asked, by way of sounding his opinion. 

"I think it is very bad," he replied. This, in- 
deed, was the sentiment among all the boys and 
girls at the scliool. We had made the evils that 
come from intoxicants jilain to them; and of 
late they had not lacked for sad examjiles of the 
truth of our teachings. 

After it had grown dark we returned, and I 
showed Kannakut the wheat flour sacks and the 



28 



molasses in the storehouse. " Do you think that 
Hoonakia and those who like gun-water will tiy 
to get it ? " I asked him. 

Kannakut nodded. "It is all there is," he 
said. "By and by, when they want drink, they 
will come to get it and make fight." 

"You think that it would be better if they 
did not find it ? " I asked. 

The boy's eyes searched my face. He nodded, 
and an odd smile flitted across his sedate coun- 
tenance. 

"Kannakut," I said, "Mrs. Gambell and I will 
be in the schoolroom this evening, setting copies. 
But the outer door of the house and the door 
leading into the storeroom will not be bolted to- 
night. I should be glad if the molasses and 
wheat flour were not to be found there to-morrow 
morning." 

Again the boy's eyes met mine for an instant 
with a gleam of intelligence. I saw that he 
fully understood the situation. 

Twice, about eight that evening, I fancied that 
I lieard a slight noise in our kitchen, adjoining 
the schoolroom. It was so slight, however, that 
neither Mrs. Gambell nor the penitent Hoonakia 
noticed it. On glancing into the storeroom the 
next morning, I found that the flour and molasses 
had disappeared. 

Kannakut, his face as sedate as ever, was at 
school as usual the next day. He burdened me 
with no confidences concerning what had oc- 
curred. Kannakut is a wise boy in his way. 



What followed may be of interest to those who 
study social evils. In the small hours of the suc- 
ceeding night I was awakened by hearing Hoo- 
nakia astir in our kitchen. She covertly entered 
the storeroom in search of her materials for dis- 
tillation. Not finding them there she retui-ned 
to her bed, but I heard her moving about several 
times &,fterward. The thirst for gun-water had 
returned, and her repentance had vanished. 

The next day at about noon, without warning, 
she flew into a violent rage, assaulted my wife, 
and cursing frightfully in both Eskimo and Eng- 
lish, finally left the house. Late that night she 
returned with three or four of the men who had 
shown a fondness for gun-water, and demanded 
the flour and molasses. I admitted them into 
the storeroom to see for themselves that it was 
not there ; then I turned them out and bade them 
begone. 

They were searching for a week, afterward, 
for the missing staples, and a tremendous un- 
easiness manifested itself throughout the village. 
But Kannakut had performed Jiis part of tlie 
task so well that the quest proved a bootless one. 
When at last they had all satisfied themselves 
that no more gun-water was possible that year, 
quiet was restored. The men resumed hunting, 
and the village settled to its former peaceable 
and good-humored life. 

Mrs. Gambell believes that she has reclaimed 
Hoonakia — for the fifth time. But when the Bear 
returns to us in July, I shall do what I can to 



39 



have this versatile lady carried back to her for- 
mer home, at Point Hope. She knows quite too 
much about the distilling business. 

When the Jiear ^returned.'the two teachers, 



Mr. and Mrs. Gambell, came home to the United 
States for a visit, and, as was mentioned at the 
beginning, were drowned while on their way 
back to St. Lawrence Island. 

— Youth's Companion. 




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